p style="text-align: left;"emHogarth 09:53/embr /emWe found them/embr /br /Jim let out a loud whoop before he could stop himself. "They found them! Hogarth found them!"br /br /Beside him Mellow sighed in relief. "Are they alright?"br /br /"I don't know. They have to be." Jim's attention was completely fixated on the tablet in his hands. Sy was safe, that was all that mattered. They'd found him, he was safe now. All that was left was just for Jim to get to him. "Come on, they were outside, let's start heading that way."br /br /The words weren't even fully out of his mouth before Jim was running. His footsteps fell heavy on the floor, but he felt as light as a spring breeze. They had found Sy. Every second he glanced down, reading the messages as they came in. Unfortunately responding was impossible at speed, so he was forced to slow to a walk to tap out his replies. But as soon as they were sent, he was running /br /"Where are they?" Mellow's long legs allowed him to keep pace with Jim easily. br /br /Jim glanced down as another message buzzed in. "Outside? On one of the roofs. Oh! Like the one we just came in through. But you said Sy knows their badges work? Why wouldn't Sy just let them back in?"br /br /"Maybe he dropped his badge?" Mellow suggested hesitantly. "Or maybe they don't have them?"br /br /Jim nodded, his mind churning. "That would explain it. If Gray took their badges before forcing them out there, they wouldn't be able to get back in."br /br /Mellow gave Jim a sidelong glance. "Why are you so certain Gray is the reason they are out there? Maybe he wasn't involved at all?"br /br /"Why else would Sy and Zephyr be sitting on a roof at seven in the morning?" Jim /br /Mellow did not have an answer for /br /Jim didn't care to continue the argument. All that mattered was that they had found Sy. "The sky bridge is just ahead, we can take that to the animal department. There's a staircase just beside it, we can take that down to ground level. From there we have a clear shot to the observation tower. We should be able to see them. We might even be able to see them from the bridge."br /br /Mellow didn't waste breath in replying. It wasn't necessary. All that mattered to him and Jim both were getting to the bridge as fast as they /br /Jim skidded around a corner, his boots squeaking against the recently shined floor as his body changed direction. Mellow used the wall to his advantage, racing up and around it on a curve before arching his path back down onto the ground. Jim was almost jealous of his ability to run on multiple surfaces. He'd seen 628 do it before as well and thought it was a great skill to /br /628 was a lot cuter when he did it, /br /That ability might be to their advantage now, though. Mellow could scale walls, which meant he could climb up to Sy and let them in with his badge. Jim might even ask if Mellow would let him ride up again. He wasn't about to pass up a chance to be with Sy /br /His tablet buzzed with a new /br /And there went that /br /"The doors aren't working. Hogarth said their badges aren't opening the door when scanned."br /br /"Maybe it's broken?" Mellow suggested /br /"It still doesn't answer why they're out there. It doesn't matter now. Look, here's what we're going to do." Jim had slowed to a light jog as his mind raced to form a plan. "The bridge is right there. We'll see if we can't spot them and figure out what door they went out. I'll stay inside, and try to get it open from in here. You go join the others down below. If I can't get the door open by the time you get there, can you climb up and carry them down?"br /br /Mellow nodded. "I can. I mean, I should be able to. There isn't a reason I can't? I don't know if they'll want to-"br /br /"Sy will trust you." Jim cut him off before he could get too deep into self doubt. Drawing in a deep breath, he looked Mellow directly in the eyes. "And I trust you. I know you can do this. But hopefully you won't have to, and I'll be able to open the door first."br /br /Mellow gave him a hesitant smile. "You trust me?"br /br /"In this, absolutely." He hadn't dropped Jim, after all, and Jim and he were most certainly not friends. And according to everything he said, Mellow actually liked Sy. Jim couldn't do anything but trust /br /"Thank you."br /br /Jim nodded once in acknowledgement. He pulled the door to the sky bridge open and stepped out. A wave of warm air swept over him. It was always hot in the bridges on sunny days. Even with their roofs providing shade from the sun, the glass sides trapped and amplified the heat like a greenhouse. br /br /The glass sides, however, meant that Jim had a clear view all the way down the side of the building and straight to the observation /br /A clear view of Sy, Zephyr, and Varian sitting together on a steeply pitched /br /"There," Jim sighed. He set his hand against the glass, wishing he could just reach out and touch Sy for /br /br /He almost had /br /"I see them. I think I can find the door. Go. Tell the others I'll see them soon."br /br /Mellow was halfway down the skybridge before Jim even had the door open again. Jim had to trust he would do his part. Now Jim needed to do /br /It hurt, letting Sy out of his sight again. But he had no choice. He would be with him again soon. That was what he had to focus on. All he had to do was get there. br /br /The hallway felt as if it was endless. Jim ran as hard and as fast as he could, his destination locked in his mind. He knew this hall. He'd taken it many times before to get to the observation tower. He knew about where the roof Sy sat upon should be. All he had to do was locate the right door. But first he had to get /br /He knew the hallway wasn't miles long, but with his heart in his throat, it certainly felt that way. And then all of a sudden he was skidding to a halt beside what was otherwise a completely innocuous /br /Every other day, Jim would ignore something like this. It was rare anything was ever back them. Locked maintenance closets, teachers' bathrooms, maybe a window, sometimes a chair or small bench. br /br /Or a door marked 'roof access only'.br /br /Jim stepped into the dimly lit corridor. A single chair sat on one side of the hall, and a little table with nothing on it on the other. And at the end was indeed that door, the nondescript sign proclaiming the end of Jim's /br /emstrong'Roof Access Only'./strong/embr /br /Jim's eyes immediately flew to the panel next to the door where he knew the scanner would be. He didn't know if it was keyed for student access, but surely there was a chance it would open for him. If not he could just see about hotwiring the-br /br /The panel had been torn completely off. A few wires stuck out of the wall at awkward angles. None were capped. Jim could only assume they were all live. The panel face lay abandoned on the floor below, the badge scanner shattered and /br /Things had just gotten a lot more /br /Raising his fist, Jim knocked firmly against the metal door. "Sy?"br /br /If Sy said anything, Jim couldn't hear /br /What he did hear was three faint knocks from the other side of the /br /A smile split Jim's face for the first time in hours. Relife spread through him, warming his body and relaxing muscles he hadn't realized were clenched. Sy was here, just a door away from him. All he had to do was get it open. "I'm coming!"br /br /Jim stepped back and frowned at the mess of wires before him. It couldn't be too hard to figure out how to get this door to open for him. Could it?br /br /Before starting his attempt, Jim grabbed his tablet. He snapped a quick picture of the evidence and attached it to the group /br /emJim 10:04/embr /emI think I know who did this./embr /emI'm going to try and get the door open./embr /emTell Mellow to go ahead with his half of the plan./embr /br /Jim drew in a deep breath and grabbed a wire./p